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Wish I could be there. What a blast from the past!
It looks like another year of blood, sweat and tears for the Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority, partly because the group Blood, Sweat and Tears is coming to town Friday, and ticket sales are low. On Tuesday, the authority:
DISCUSSED CONCERT PROMOTION
The civic center is promoting the show and expects to spend $70,000 on it, but with four days to go, only 252 tickets have been sold, interim Manager Linda Roberts told authority members Tuesday.
To break even, the civic center needs to sell 1,187 tickets before curtain time.
Mrs. Roberts said former Manager Robert "Flash" Gordon had been working on the show, and when he was fired in March, she inherited the job. Member Richard Isdell said he was surprised the show was being promoted in-house and didn't think any board member knew it was either. His motion passed to allow Mrs. Roberts to promote the show heavily before Friday in an effort not to lose money on a second in-house promotion. In December, the civic center lost $30,000 on the Aaron Tippen, Joe Diffie show Mr. Gordon promoted.
Mrs. Roberts said $38,000 has already been spent on the Blood, Sweat and Tears concert.
Elected New Officers
Keith Brown was elected chairman; Mr. Isdell vice chairman; Adrian Arnold, treasurer; and William Fennoy, secretary.
Mrs. Arnold, who was not at the meeting, was elected after five other members -- Jack Usry, Mr. Fennoy, Mildred McDaniel, Harry Moore and Freddie Sanders -- refused to accept the nomination. Mrs. Arnold's appointment is subject to her accepting it. If she doesn't, the board will try to fill the post at their next meeting.
In the chairman election, Booker T. Roberson nominated Mr. Sanders, and Janice Jenkins nominated Mr. Brown, who won on a 5-3 vote. Afterward, Mr. Roberson, who had lobbied for Mr. Sanders' election, said board members who had said they would vote for Mr. Sanders had "flipped" on him in the voting "390 degrees."
UNVEILED A James Brown Plaque
Mr. Isdell unveiled an 18-by-24-inch bronze plaque that will be mounted outside the arena and unveiled to the public during ceremonies tentatively set for Aug. 22. Cost: $3,800.
ADOPTED A BUDGET
At the urging of Mr. Sanders, the board unanimously voted to adopt the 2006-07 budget for 2007-08 so the authority would have a budget for the year.
Mr. Sanders said the authority was at the end of the fiscal year and still had no budget. He emphasized the board is not responsible for the budget.
"Management is responsible for getting up a budget," he said.
Mr. Sanders also pressed for financial reports that were not forthcoming Tuesday.
"There's no excuse not to have financial reports," he said, adding that some financial reports the board had received from the previous finance director had the wrong year on them.
"That's preposterous," he said.
Temporary employees are running the finance office until the authority can get a CPA firm to take over financial operations.
Mr. Sanders also said Augusta commissioners must have the civic center's audit so the city audit can be completed. He said commissioners are demanding accurate financial information from the authority and might take away authority funding if they don't get it.
Mrs. Roberts said a draft of an audit by Tabb &Tabb CPA firm of Atlanta is expected May 1.
-- Sylvia Cooper, staff writer
Comments
Wish I could be there. What a blast from the past!
what promotions are being done to let people know about concerts? merely updating the civic centers website and electronic bill board arent going to cut it. Supposedly 38,000 dollars have been spent on the concert so far. Where is this money going? I had no idea this concert was taking place, until last night!
Haven't heard about it till now!!
the dog & pony show continues
What kind of IQ test do you have to fail to get on this government train? No body's responsible for anything and still no one wants a job of authority. Bring on the clowns.
It's pretty pathetic when the first time you hear about a concert is because the Civic Center hasn't sold enough tickets to break even on the event.
I haven't heard one thing about this concert taking place until just now. Where has 38,000 dollars been spent? I haven't seen a billboard, heard a commercial - nothing. I think that someone needs to look into where the money has gone and to whom and for what? I would love to have attended, but now have other plans.
Spending $70k on a band that should cost $5k, what a joke. The only chance this show ever had to break even was to have it during Masters week. Another train wreck brought to you by the management of The James Brown Arena.
I would have loved to have gone to hear them, but I only now found out. If you want people to come, you got to get the word out. Stupid is as stupid does
Let's support this concert!!!! What a great one to be brought to the area!! Sure they could have promoted it more, but now that we know about it, let's turnout and support the great music and enjoy a great night!
what concert? where did they spend $38,000 WHO did they think were going to come see DUD, NYET, and YEARS ago?
Well, now that you know, are you going or just going to sit here and complain?
Again, get someone who knows what they are doing, your advertising is too little too late. It should have started over 45 days ago on television instead of the radio blurbs that included too little information in them. You should also have run print ads. Again someone under that roof needs to have some experience. It should have been advertised in Columbia, Aiken Statesboro to get a sellout crowd.
"What goes up must come down...spinning wheels spinnin round"........... LOL It's all a joke folks...The civic center is a "Roller Coaster" of a disaster.....They cain't move no more Mountains......If the entire board would resign then" You make me so very happy"..................
93.9 The Drive has been promoting it for a week or two now, the Bell auditorium 25 April. Blood Sweat and Tears and also chuck Negron from Three Dog Night. If we want a venue here we all need to go out and support the shows or stop complaining.
Maybe the Chronicle can find where the $38,000 went, since none of us has seen any promotion. And then again, maybe not, if they can't issue financial reports then it is possible no_BODY knows.
I had to laugh at their electing Mrs. Arnold to be treasurer only because the ones they really wanted to be treasurer refused, and Mrs. Arnold was not at the meeting. It goes to show you had better attend the meetings where officers are elected.
Advertisement for events down there are AWFUL... certain radio stations don't advertise about who's coming, ie, if it's a country and western singer, Foxie 103 or 96.9 etc probably want advertise and WHY NOT they should, and vice versa if it was Snoop Dog or somebody coming BBQ or GUS want let the surrounding area know WHY NOT they should (unless you listen to those stations). Maybe in the new budget they can set aside funds for 30 second commercials to be aired on ALL radio/tv stations to get the word out about who's performing, regardless of the ethnic listenership.
If WGAC is the number one station looks like that is where they need to advertise. With all the folks that listin to Rush and Austin that should help.
Another theory on enterntainment in Augusta. The people are too content and don't need the amount of entertainment some places do. That is one reason big time sports came to the North first. Those people have miserable winters and need entertainment. Low attendance may indicate folks are content and others things are a priority. If your reality is good you don't need a diversion.
I haven't heard about it either. They need to get some people in there who know what they are doing, or tear it down. And why spend $3800 on a James Brown statue when you can't even make money on concerts!!
Come on, folks - let's be brutally honest here. Not al of the blame lies with the Authority. Augusta is a Wal-Mart kind of town. If given the choice to go tohear a relatively big name band or symphony or play versus goint to Wal-Mart, most Augustans will choose Wal-Mart. It's not so much a lack of foresight or planning by the Authority as it is a lack of cultural yearning by the people.
There's a concert Friday night?!?
This is the first I've heard of this concert (Wed April 23) and I do listen to the radio etc. Speaking of the James Brown Arena, why on earth spend $3800 on a bronze plaque. Charles Devaney died January 2007 and I have yet to hear a peep about doing anything to remember him. No doubt Mr Brown was a nice guy and all, but who paid for the plaque? Private donations I hope.
Amen to Standing Tall; Most people in Augusta are too content and happy with their lives and need a very low level of diversion through entertainment. What a wonderful problem to have.
Standing Tall - sit down. Apparently you do not attend many symphony or play performances. They do quite well in Augusta. Who wants to hear a has been band that hasn't had a hit in 30 years? Are all the original members included? At $39.00 a ticket, I'll wait untill they play Sky City!
Standing Tall. What part of town do you frequent? I don't know the people you describe. Now, I know people who spend hours (can you believe it) at the Mall, but Wal-Mart? Not so. Okay, I guess you know how many people you stand in line behind every day,
This is typical when it comes to promoting acts coming to Augusta. The Doobie Brothers are coming in May which I think is at the Augusta Commons which may not have anything to do with the CA, but the only advertisement you see is the 8x11 posted at Wife Saver where tickets are available.
HINT: If you want people to come out to shows, bring shows to us that people actually want to see. I mean, hello, 1972 called and they want their concert back. I have seen over a hundred concerts in my 38 years, and only four of them I saw in Augusta and that was back in the 80's. I have to travel to Atlanta and Charlotte at least once every three months to catch the concerts that I (and everyone else between the ages of 12 and 50) actually want to see.
And by the way, this is the first I've heard about this concert. SHUT DOWN THE CA AND BRING IN A COMPANY THAT ACTUALLY KNOWS WHAT THEY'RE DOING!!! We've been going through this same thing for the past 25 years with this freakin' authority. The definition of insanity (or better yet, stupidity)? Doing the same thing over and over (for 25 years) and actually expecting it to work each time.
Considering PBS has been wheeling them and countless others out during their incesant , tedious pledge drives people are sick of it. I loved the group 35 years ago but it's time they find a nice golf course and stop pretending we want to pay $39.00 a ticket for dated music. Free might work or at least a percentage of the price going to a local charity. Augusta may be a WalMart crowd but its a perfect place to showcase jazz, blues, R&B and even some country. The south has a rich musical heritage. New Orleans doesn't own that concept. If Augusta can host the Masters in spring, why not a jazz festival in the fall?
They should Twitter all their performances. If you don't know what Twitter is, Google it.
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